Banks and retail establishments are increasingly moving towards the use of fingerprint reading devices. A fingerprint reading device has an electronic screen against which a customer is asked to place his or her thumb or other finger. The electronic screen automatically picks up the customer's fingerprint and relays it to a center location for authentication or recording.
Additionally, banks and retail establishments are showing increased interest in the use of other electronic transmission devices such as electronic signature pads, display screens, keypads, card readers and mag-strike readers.
Electronic signature pads are of a special interest. An electronic signature pad has an electronic screen or a sheet of paper disposed over an electronic screen. The customer is asked to sign his or her signature on the screen or on a sheet of paper which overlays the screen. The screen automatically picks up the customer's signature and relays it to a central location for authentication or storage.
Banking and retail establishments often find it cumbersome to use both a fingerprint reader and a second electronic transmission device, because the use of the two separate devices frequently takes up an undue amount of precious counter space.
There have been attempts to incorporate a fingerprint reader device with a second electronic transmission device. However, such attempts have not been wholly successful. One problem with such combined devices is that it is very awkward to use. Especially the fingerprint reader is difficult to access and frequency requires the rotation of the entire unit.
Accordingly, there is a need for a combined fingerprint reader and second electronic transmission device which avoids these problems with the prior art.